Infinite Jest and Great Music

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

“I can make you start to smile.” — To Be With You, Mr. Big

The hour is late. I am in bed collecting my thoughts in the moment. Have you noticed I am always on the hunt for deeper meaning in a moment, an encounter, a woe begotten text message in the morning, the arrival of those adults whom we call our children, the birthday songs in the twilight hour? I have to confess this day has been non-descript as most days are truth be told.

And then it occurred to me — write about what you are feeling right now as we approach the midnight hour. Readers are not expecting War and Peace or a blazing insight into the human condition that bears reading two and three times. They just want to know you and your feelings here, right now, not tomorrow or next month but here in the moment.

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I am reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. What was I thinking when I asked Santa for this monstrous tome? The novel has sold more than a million copies and clocks in at 981 pages (not including footnotes). I was drawn to the book because I recognize parts of myself in Wallace — a highly sensitive writer who until his dying day stood apart from the world as he understood the world more deeply with each book, essay, paragraph, line, word. I believe a felt spiritual alignment with another soul reflects something essential about one’s calling in life. The deeper we perceive, the more spiritual we become.

I feel alignment when I listen to Wallace in interviews, his famous Commencement Speech This Is Water at Kenyon College in 2005. It’s that simple.

Besides, Infinite Jest is a National Bestseller. Would I know the man more deeply I should know his defining work, right?

I am up to page 150 and it is March 4, 2025. Christmas was December 25, 2024. What is that, one or two pages a day? Dear readers, it is a tough slog. Let me tell you. There are multiple plots and cross plots going on at the same time. Sometimes I am lost and it must be me, not my revered David Foster Wallace. But I know trouble lies ahead when I begin to complain to my wife about the long sentences. That is not a good sign. One day, my wife was in the kitchen and I was snarking about the novel. I said, “Hey, let me read a sentence to you. You have to hear this!” I began to read the sentence, line after line after line after line….I began to laugh at the fifth line so hard I could barely talk. I hurt my lungs laughing!!! My wife joined in the merriment. My wife was a English literature major.

This is not a good sign, dear readers. This mockery does not for tend well for my relationship with Infinite Jest.

That sentence I read aloud to my wife in laughter…37 lines long! Enough to make me smile.

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I am not worthy to read such an august and epic novel as Infinite Jest. I feel very, very small as a reader.

Want to know what causes my soul to soar into the heavens tonight, right here and right now? Mr. Big! That’s right, the rock band from Los Angeles Mr. Big and their soulful song TO BE WITH YOU. I start to smile again. I can’t help myself. Such a great mood in tune with the spirit world. I nod my head to the tune. My heart tells me all will be well in the end. We live in a good universe where such music can move one’s heart and soul.

I present to you not the intellect of 37 line sentences but a melodic voice and a guitar player who plays like an angel and musicians who are as one in perfection. I present to you how I am feeling right now, this moment.

Good evening and be happy in spirit!

To Be With You by Mr. Big (1991)